Linda Vista Revisited: East LA's Abandoned Hospital

In 2008, while scouting for a short film that never came to fruition, some friends and I talked our way inside an empty, run-down hospital in Boyle Heights. The short was supposed to take place in a hospital, but after a few minutes wandering the halls of Linda Vista -- alone and decidedly creeped-out -- it became obvious that there was no way the place would work. It had been closed for twenty years, and it showed: there was dirt caked in layers on walls and mysteriously wet floors; windows were broken and doors hung off their hinges; ceiling tiles had fallen victim to moisture and gravity, and rats had chewed through the walls. We didn't have the money to make Linda Vista look like anything more than a horror movie -- a few of which had actually been shot there over the years.

I was only inside for 45 minutes or so, running through the place snapping photos on the fly with a crappy point-and-shoot. I featured some of them in this post from last year, but promised myself I would go back with a DSLR, a tripod and a few hours to kill, and really explore the place. A year later, I finally did.

Click on photos to see larger sizes.

Linda Vista was a railroad hospital. Originally known as Santa Fe Coast Lines Hospital, it was constructed in 1905 to care for Santa Fe railroad workers who had been injured on the job.

Countless more files can be found downstairs in the death records room. Why thousands of highly personal records are allowed to molder in the basement of a defunct hospital, I don't know.

Many of the rooms were painted with bright colors years ago; faded and peeled now, they make the place even more surreal.

Someone left a safety razor behind.

The halls are endless and mazelike; it's easy to get lost.

Down in the boiler room.

Cheerful graffiti:

Dumbwaiters are everywhere.

More dumbwaiters:

Art directors have had their way with this room.

An old lobby chair?

Old hospital beds clog some of the hallways.

Other random junk:

Detail of random junk in random box:

Fancy a bath? Like most sinks and toilets in the hospital, this tub is brimming with inches of pigeon droppings.

Relative normalcy -- and a beautiful park -- are just across the street.

You’ve probably heard about all of the new stuff coming to Disney Parks over the next couple of years—Toy Story Land, a Star Wars hotel, new rides, new attractions, and more. But what about all of the old stuff?

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Disney closed the gates on two of its smaller properties: Discovery Island, an island filled with interesting plants and animals, and River Country, a water park with a rustic “swimming hole” theme. More than 15 years later, both remain abandoned.

DISCOVERY ISLAND

In the early 1960s, when Walt Disney was flying over the Orlando area to scout locations for his newest theme park, he noticed a little island that looked particularly secluded and peaceful. When he completed his Disney World land purchase, he made sure the island, then known as Riles Island, was included.

Disney originally planned to call the place “Blackbeard’s Island” and give it an elaborate pirate theme. Construction took about a decade longer than they intended, but in 1974, the island did open to the public under the name “Treasure Island.” It wasn’t as heavily-themed as Walt had wanted—in fact, the only pirate "relic" was a shipwreck replica. Other than the fake wreck, the main attractions were exotic birds, animal demonstrations, and various walkways, lookout points, beaches, and lagoons.

Treasure Island was open for just two years before Disney decided to make it bigger. They brought in 50,000 cubic yards of soil to expand the island to 11 acres, added more than 250 plants and flowers, and introduced 140 new exotic birds and animals. It was eventually renamed “Discovery Island” and was re-branded with an ecological theme.

It was never one of Disney’s most popular attractions, so it was a no-brainer to close Discovery Island after the bigger-and-better zoological park, Animal Kingdom, opened in 1998. The island’s animals were relocated to the new facilities and others were placed in non-Disney zoos across the country.

Discovery Island is still there all these years later, though it’s been completely abandoned. An urban explorer found his way onto the island in 2009 (don’t try this at home, by the way) and snapped a few pictures of what it looks like these days. Though it appears pretty desolate now, there have been some thoughts about how to resurrect this valuable piece of real estate.

Soon after the island closed, Disney met with Robyn and Rand Miller, the creators of the hugely popular computer games Myst and Riven, hoping to recreate a real-life version of the adventure game. A certain number of guests would be admitted to the island each morning and would have a set number of hours to explore, unlocking secrets and finding hidden passages in the process. No two experiences would ever be the same. Storylines were plotted and plans were sketched, but the Myst island never fully materialized.

In 2009, one site suggested that Disney had extensive plans in place to transform the place into a Lost-themed island, but that turned out to be a hoax. Nevertheless, diehard fans immediately rallied to the cause, even starting an online petition that show producer Damon Lindelof signed. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to visit the Hatch or purchase DHARMA Initiative-branded fountain drinks anytime soon.

RIVER COUNTRY

River Country, a quaint little water park featuring tire swings, a barrel bridge, and two water slides called “Whoop ‘N’ Holler Hollow,” first opened to the public in 1976. The first rider to christen the water slide was Susan Ford, the daughter of then-President Gerald Ford.

The Huckleberry Finn-esque swimming hole, located near the Fort Wilderness campground area, was a popular vacation destination for 25 years, and was even the focus of a Wonderful World of Disney episode called “The Mouseketeers at Disney World.” At the end of the 2001 season, however, River Country was shut down for good. The rumor has long been that the death of an 11-year-old boy contributed to the closure, but the tragedy—the result of a rare amoeba found in freshwater lakes—occurred in 1980, 21 years before the proverbial windows were shuttered.

What’s closer to the truth, according to Yesterland, is that River Country simply became too expensive to operate. Theme park attendance dropped after September 11, forcing Disney to make budget cuts. Because two newer, easier-to-access water parks had been opened in more recent years, closing River Country was likely an easy decision to make.

Though a spokesperson said that River Country could potentially reopen if there was “enough guest demand,” it never did. Disney drained and filled in the 333,000-gallon Upstream Plunge pool just last year. There are currently no plans to demolish what remains of River Country, but there’s been speculation that the area will eventually be converted into timeshare units for the Disney Vacation Club.

Often, islands come to represent places of extremes: they serve as utopias, purgatories, or ultimate dream vacation destinations. When it comes to mythological islands, utopias are especially popular. The Greeks had their Fortunate Islands, or Islands of the Blessed, where the luckiest mortals whiled away their time drinking and sporting. The Irish had a similar concept with their Mag Mell, or Plain of Honey, described as an island paradise where deities frolicked and only the most daring mortals occasionally visited.

But mythology isn't the only engine creating islands that don't actually exist—some of these legendary land masses popped up on maps after miscalculations by early explorers who interpreted icebergs, fog banks, and mirages as real islands. Some of these cartographic “mistakes” may have been intentional—certain islands depicted on medieval maps might have been invented so they could be named after the patrons who funded the explorations. Even explorer Robert E. Peary wasn't immune: Some say he invented "Crocker Land," a supposedly massive island in the Arctic, to secure funding from San Francisco financier George Crocker. Crocker Land didn’t exist, although that didn’t prevent major American organizations (including the American Museum of Natural History) from sponsoring a four-year expedition to find it.

Much like the fictional Crocker Island, here are 10 more imaginary isles, all of which have a place in world history, literature, or mythology—despite not having a place on the map.

1. Isle of Demons

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Supposedly located off the coast of Newfoundland, this landmass (sometimes depicted as two islands) appeared on 16th century and early 17th century maps, and was named for the mysterious cries and groans mariners reported hearing through the mist.

The island was given a somewhat more solid identity after 1542, when nobleman and adventurer Jean-François Roberval was instructed by the King of France to found settlements along the North Atlantic coast. He brought his niece, Marguerite de La Rocque de Roberval, along for the voyage, but she began a passionate affair with one of Roberval's officers. Annoyed, Roberval put his niece (and maybe the officer—accounts differ), as well as her nurse, ashore on an otherwise unspecified "Isle of Demons" in the St. Lawrence River. Marguerite gave birth on the island, but the child died, as did Marguerite’s lover and nurse. However, the plucky Marguerite survived alone for several years, using her firearms against the wild beasts. After being rescued by Basque fishermen and returning to France, she reported that she had been beset "by beasts or other shapes abominably and unutterably hideous, the brood of hell, howling in baffled fury."

Marguerite’s story appears in several historical accounts, including versions by Franciscan friar André Thevet and the Queen of Navarre. Still, the location of the “Isle of Demons” on which she landed has never been found for certain. Maritime historian and veteran Atlantic sailor Donald Johnson thinks he has identified it as Fichot Island, close to the Strait of Belle Isle at the northern tip of Newfoundland. Johnson notes that Fichot Island lies on Roberval's course, and is home to a breeding colony of gannets—a type of seabird whose guttural cries, heard only while breeding, may have been taken for the sounds of demons.

2. Antillia

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Also known as the Isle of Seven Cities, Antillia was a 15th century cartographic phenomenon said to lie far west of Spain and Portugal. Stories about its existence are connected to an Iberian legend in which seven Visigothic bishops and their parishioners fled Muslim conquerors in the eighth century, sailing west and eventually discovering an island where they founded seven settlements. The bishops burned their ships, so they could never return to their former homeland.

According to some versions of the legend, many people have visited Antillia but no one has ever left; in other versions of the tale, sailors can see the island from a distance, but the land always vanishes once they approach. Spain and Portugal even once squabbled over the island, despite its non-existence, perhaps because its beaches were said to be strewn with precious metals. By the late 15th century, once the North Atlantic was better mapped, references to Antillia disappeared—although it did lend its name to the Spanish Antilles.

3. Atlantis

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First mentioned by Plato, Atlantis was supposedly a large island that lay "to the west of the Pillars of Hercules" in the Atlantic Ocean. It was said to be a peaceful but powerful kingdom lost beneath the waves after a violent earthquake was released by the gods as punishment for waging war against Athens. There have been many attempts at identifying the island, although it may have been entirely a creation of Plato’s imagination; some archeologists associate it with the Minoan island of Santorini, north of Crete, whose center collapsed after a volcanic eruption and earthquake around 1500 BC.

4. Aeaea

In Greek mythology, Aeaea is the floating home of Circe, the goddess of magic. Circe is said to have spent her time on the island, gifted to her by her father, the Sun, waiting for mortal sailors to land so she could seduce them. (Afterwards, the story goes, she would turn them into pigs.) Some classical scholars have identified Aeaea as the Cape Circeium peninsula on the western coast of Italy, which may have been an island in the days of Homer, or may have looked like one because of the marshes surrounding its base.

5. Hy-Brasil

Also known as Country o'Breasal, Brazil Rock, Hy na-Beatha (Isle of Life), Tir fo-Thuin (Land Under the Wave), and by many other names, Brasil (Gaelic for "Isle of the Blessed") is one of the many mythical islands of Irish folklore, but one that nevertheless made several appearances on real maps.

Like the Mediterranean's Atlantis, Brasil was said to be a place of perfect contentment and immortality. It was also the domain of Breasal, the High King of the World, who held court there every seven years. Breasal had the ability to make the island rise or sink as he pleased, and normally only let the island be visible when his court was in full swing.

According to legend, Brasil lay "where the sun touched the horizon, or immediately on its other side—usually close enough to see but too far to visit." It first appeared on a map made in 1325 by Genoese cartographer Daloroto, who depicted it as a large area to the southwest of Ireland. (Later maps placed it farther west.) Its shape was usually drawn as a near-perfect circle, bifurcated by a river. Numerous explorers searched for the island, and some, including Italian navigator John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), even claimed to have found it.

Today, scholars think Brasil may have been a reference to Baffin Island, or to now-sunken lands visible only when sea levels were lower during the last Ice Age, or else an optical illusion produced by layers of hot and cold air refracting light rays.

6. Baralku

Among the indigenous Australians of the Yolngu culture, Baralku (or Bralgu) is the island of the dead. The island holds a central place in the Yolngu cosmology—it's where the creator-spirit Barnumbirr is said to live before rising into the sky as the planet Venus each morning. Baralku is also the spot where the three siblings who created the landscape of Australia, the Djanggawul, originated. The island supposedly lies to the east of Arnhem Land in Northern Australia, and the Yolngu believe their souls return there after death.

7. Saint Brendan's Isle

This piece of land was said to have been discovered by Irish abbot and traveler Saint Brendan and his followers in 512, and to be located in the North Atlantic, somewhere west of Northern Africa. Brendan became famous after the publication of the Latin Navigation of St Brendan, an 8th/9th century text that described his voyage in search of the wonderful "Land of Promise" in the Atlantic Ocean. The book was a medieval best-seller, and gave the saint his nickname, "Brendan the Navigator." The island was said to be thickly wooded, filled with rich fruit and flowers. Tales of St. Brendan's Isle inspired Christopher Columbus, among others, and had an important influence on medieval cartography. Sightings were reported as late as the 18th century.

8. Avalon

First mentioned in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 12th century Historia regum Britanniae, Avalon is the place where the legendary King Arthur's sword is forged, and where he is sent to recover after being wounded in battle. The island was said to be the domain of Arthur's half-sister, sorceress Morgan le Fay, as well as her eight sisters. Starting in the 12th century, Avalon was identified with Glastonbury in Somerset, in connection with Celtic legends about a paradisiacal “island of glass.” Twelfth century monks at Glastonbury Abbey claimed to have discovered Arthur’s bones—although later historians believe their “discovery” was a publicity stunt to raise money for Abbey repairs.

9. Island of Flame

In ancient Egyptian mythology, the Island of Flame (also known as the Island of Peace) was the magical birthplace of the gods and part of the kingdom of Osiris. It was said to have emerged out of primeval waters and to lay far to the East, beyond the boundaries of the world of the living. Associated with the rising sun, it was a place of everlasting light.

10. Thule

For the Greeks and Romans, Thule existed at the northernmost limit of their known world. It first appears in a lost work by the Greek explorer Pytheas, who supposedly found it in the 4th century BC. Polybius says that "Pytheas ... has led many people into error by saying that he traversed the whole of Britain on foot … and telling us also about Thule, those regions in which there was no longer any proper land nor sea nor air, but a sort of mixture of all three of the consistency of a jelly-fish in which one can neither walk nor sail, holding everything together, so to speak." Later scholars have interpreted Thule as the Orkneys, Shetlands, Iceland, or possibly Norway, while the Nazis believed Thule was the ancient homeland of the Aryan race.

Bonus: People Used to Think California was an Island

Between the 16th and the 18th centuries, many Europeans believed that California was an island. Like other islands on this list, the place was reported as being a kind of paradise. In fact, the name "California" first appears in a romantic novel penned by Spanish author Garci Ordóñez de Montalvo, who described it as an island filled with gold and precious gems, populated by a race of Amazons who rode griffins.